Out
of the Past
Articles and comments about women
and menstruation in 17th
century England as well
as centuries ago in
other places

In
response to an American TV
inquiry that I received in
July of 2013, I contacted
English Renaissance scholar
Dr Sara
Read (more about her
below) for expressions
and words that the Puritans
used in the 17th century.
She wrote:

There were a few expressions in
use at this time (including
actually 'terms' itself).

The most common ones were:
flowers, courses, and terms.
However, they were unlikely to
be used in open conversation
where instead women tended to
say things like 'those' or
'nature' that type of thing.
The expressions, then, imply
menstruation rather than say
it, so if for example she was
telling another woman she
thought she might be pregnant
she might say, 'I haven't had
those for a while' and assume
that the other woman knew what
she meant. Men tended to be
more direct and say terms or
courses 'she hasn't had her
course' for example. They also
used the biblical 'custom of
women' so an older woman might
be described as no longer
having the custom of women,
for example.

The whole of Chapter One of my
book [which appears in September
2013] Menstruation and
the Female Body in Early
Modern Englandis
devoted to the language used for
menstruation in the early modern
era.